Designing steel members for gravity only

Tekla Structural Designer
2019
Tekla Structural Designer

Designing steel members for gravity only

By default, all elements are designed for both gravity and lateral combinations. By using the Gravity only property on individual elements you can tell Tekla Structural Designer to only consider gravity combinations in the design of those elements.

By checking/unchecking the Gravity only option members are set to be:

  • Gravity only - designed for gravity combinations only

  • Lateral and Gravity - designed for all combinations types - gravity, lateral and seismic

Setting columns that do not help resist lateral loads to be designed for gravity loads only, will reduce the overall design time.

Engineering judgement will be required when identifying members as being 'gravity only'.

For example:

  • if an inclined braced member connects to a beam, axial force in the brace (from both gravity and lateral loads) puts the beam into bending and therefore the beam should be designed for both gravity and lateral loads.

  • potentially, beams in a sloping roof would also need to be designed for both gravity and lateral load

Note:

If a composite beam is identified as being designed for both gravity and lateral combinations, they are only designed for gravity loads acting through the web only. Minor axis bending and axial loads are not considered. Hence a warning is provided, if the ignored loads exceed a preset limit.

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